Archive | France

Ever wanted to know how to match wine with cheese, or wine with any flavour such as chocolate? Let our sommelier help you discover which wines work with which food and why.

With games galore and anecdotes aplenty, our sommelier will introduce to a selection of four excellent wines and how they combine with a range of culinary delights, in a refreshing, memorable and above all entertaining approach to wine tasting.

As ever, you will be hearing Le Foodist’s surprising stories behind the wines and produce you encounter along the way, before enjoying a scintillating surprise finale. Paris‘s wine stores and restaurant wine lists will hold no secrets for you. The perfect aperitif to a culinary soirée in Paris!

Here are some of the possibilities:

An introduction to classic cheese and wine pairings

This is a uniqueexperience to discover some of the variety of tastes that France can offer – and we will give you very surprising ways to bluff your friends by identifying the origin of wines with our expert touch. It’s deceivingly simple, incredibly effective – and we might add, quite unique!

Northern France Whites

Come and taste with us dry and sweet wines from Alsace, Burgundy and the Loire Valley. Late harvests (vendanges tardives), soil effects on Sauvignon blanc and Chardonnay and many more will have no more secrets for you. To many people surprise, white wines are often the best match to cheese. So come and find out first hand which pairings really work.

Southern France Whites

Here we explore dry and sweet wines from Bordeaux, Languedoc, and the Rhône valley – all the way down to Chateauneuf du Pape. The famed “noble rot” of Bordeaux equally famed Sauternes will have not more secrets for you, nor will the perfect cheese pairing of these various wines full of sun. To many people surprise, white wines can be the most surprisingly balanced match to cheese. But which cheeses? Come and find out first hand.

Southern France Reds

From Bordeaux to the Rhône – from Languedoc to Chateauneuf du Pape. These wines share a lust for the sun and they all stand like tall figures with broad shoulders. These wines have so much character you could almost hear them talk. Their poetry and complexities will have not more secrets for you, nor will the perfect cheese pairing of these various wines full of sun.

Northern France Reds

Here we explore Pinot Noir from Burgundy but also Alsace, but also excellent and surprising Gamay and Cabernet Franc based wines expressing all that some terroirs (specific areas) can offer. This is where elegance in wine is best experienced. And always, first-hand experiences on unique cheese pairings.

Learn the secrets of perfect pastry and magic macaroons, while enjoying Le Foodist’s own surprising stories about sweet sensations through the ages. At the end, you can savour the fruits of your labour with a selection of refreshing tea-time beverages.

In every Sweet Stories session, you will experience:

Hands on and Hands In

Maybe we should say: hands in … the dough. There is no avoiding getting dirty when you cook pâtisserie. But at the end it is mostly sugar and butter we are talking about. So it’s not so bad, is it?

Precision

Everybody says it is the most critical in pâtisserie. We will explore the limits together, to see how far you really need to go …

Tasting and learning stories

When the time comes to taste the fruit of your efforts, we will share tea or coffee – and the stories of how these exotic beverages have helped shape the face of the earth, and more modestly, Paris.

Choose from these classes:

Macarons and Meringues: Not only the opportunity to learn how to make a French, a Swiss or an Italian Meringue; but also to see how to get amazing colors and flavours! And a bit of the history of the conspicuous but notoriously challenging little cake – and our best addressees in Paris (not all as famous as you might think …)

The secret to Croissants and Napoleon: At the basis of many a French sweet delicacy there is a special dough: pâte feuilletée. Learning the secret to build literally thousands of layers of dough is fun! And the result has many applications, as we will see. But there is no Napoleon without crême pâtissière, so we do that too.

Choux Pastry: The basis for St Honoré or Profiteroles, but also for savoury Gougères, this is definitely one you will use again and again after you master it. So many applications; paired with cream bases, mmm

We offer comprehensive culinary classes where you learn to select produce at the market, plan your preparation, and learn the culinary techniques involved while producing the menu yourself. Our approach is fun and informal, but also a learningexperience, and as always we shall be sharing our surprising stories of what the contents of your plate can tell you about French culture.

After the hard work, sit down with classmates to savour the fruits of your labour: a three-course meal with matching wines.

In every Travel & Chef session, you will experience what we detail below.

Learn by doing

It is said we learn by doing; OK. But it is also said we learn by our mistakes. Using that insight (based on experience unfortunately …) we have developped an original technique for accelerating the learning of how to cook – where you might fail first, but you will definitely succeed in the end. And this works wonders to make the lesson memorable.

Technical mastery

Simple techniques are the foundation of any great French meal; this is the basis for French professional cooking certification. So we ensure that you cover 5 to 7 of these fundamental techniques in each of our classes (for a total of 192). And then we explain a bit of the theory, because we all learn differently.

Storytelling

In France, the pleasure of a meal derives both from the food and the fact that we share our meals. And what do we share? Usually conversations about food. So we will make sure you hear our stories about the ingredients and recipes along the way, and take the opportunity to discover a bit more about the French culture along the way.

Planning the meal

This might be the topic about cooking which is the least covered in classes or books. Yet we think the most critical – and at the heart of professional cooking. So why not learn something about it with us? We will be happy to share.

Sharing the meal

At the end of our class, we always sit down to enjoy the meal together – and to hear some stories about the wine we pair with the food.

Once Upon a Table is an exceptional gourmet dining event, where you get to savour not only a fine traditional French gastronomic meal, but also to explore French wines, discover French culture, learn the history of what is on your plate and meet your French hosts.

In every Once Upon a Table dining event, you will experience what we detail below. To help ensure we source the best ingredients, our events change with the seasons.

Enjoy a traditional French gastronomic meal

Let our gourmet chef prepare you a traditional five-course French gastronomic menu for your delectation. The dishes have been carefully chosen to reflect the best of the French culinary tradition and each has a unique Le Foodist touch to charm the palate. Our dishes contain only the finest French sourced ingredients.

Explore French wines

Our sommelier will introduce you to five delicious French regional wines, finishing with a refreshing champagne. The wines have been carefully selected to accompany the menu to perfection and introduce you to the diversity of France’s vineyards. Our sommelier will also let you into a few secrets of tasting so that by the end of the experience you too will be talking like a true wine connoisseur.

Discover French culture

Food and wine are windows to the French soul. Throughout the evening, you will discover a little of the essence of the “French exception”.

Meet the French

Your authentic tricouleur-blooded hosts, Stéphane and Fred, will share their experiences of different cultures and give you a chance to find out what makes France so different.

Learn stories

As each dish is presented, you will be regaled with tantalising tales of the whys and wherefores of French cuisine, putting history into every mouthful. Surprising Stories are a unique core of the Le Foodist experience, offering you a chance to share your own culinary experiences.

Come take a delicious insider culinary journey of Paris with Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Richard Nahem, a former New York and professional chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook, will teach students how to make classic French food with an ethnic twist. Classes will start at 9:00AM with a tour of a fresh food market, where we will shop for some of the seasonal and sometimes exotic ingredients. After, we will go to Charlotte’s private townhouse minutes from the Eiffel Tower. We will discuss the menu over coffee and prepare a three-course feast for the next few hours. We will finish with our delicious lunch we just prepared along with a selection of ripe cheeses and French wine from a local shop specially selected for the cuisine. Classes will end approximately 2PM.

Come to Camont for a long weekend or a week’s course and explore the classic French cooking techniques behind recipes that define Gascon cooking. Each day’s seasonal menu is born at the local markets and farms where we meet producers and learn to choose vegetables at their freshest, cheese at its ripest, and the perfect cut of meat for the dishes we create.

The dishes you’ll cook form the backbone of French regional cooking in the Southwest and as we explore the classic French techniques – sauteing, braising, roasting, baking and grilling – through the famous dishes of the region.

More cuisine familial than haute cuisine, Gascony celebrates local food from its farms and artisan producers in one of France’s most diverse agriculture regions. This abundant harvest gives birth to regional specialties like garbure, poule-au-pot, lapin aux pruneaux, confit de canard, foie gras en torchon, and gigot d’agneau aux haricots.

Course details:

We start in the morning for the first of our intensive day-long classes. Working only with local farm fresh ingredients and classic French techniques, we create exemplary seasonal menus that reflect terroir in the cooking of Southwest France. We cook for 6 hours per day – breaking for a long French lunch from the best seasonal Gascon produce! And of course, cooking isn’t only about recipes and ingredients. On market days, we’ll take you to our favorite farmers’ market to meet some of our favorite artisan food producers.

Example day:

9:30- 12:30 Meet at Camont for a morning of classic French techniques creating starters and main courses.

12:30-2:00 Our French lunch on the terrace breaks the day as we celebrate the arts of the table.

2:00-5:00: The sweet afternoon is devoted to creating Kate’s fool-proof buttery pastry and other desserts famous in Gascony which we indulge in the traditional afternoon gouter with coffee, tea or an aperitif!

Spring / summer dates in 2012

Three-day courses: 27 – 29 April / 18 – 20 May / 15 – 17 June

Five-day courses: 28 May – 1 June / 2 – 6 July / 30 July – 3 August

Autumn / winter dates in 2012

Three-day courses: 5 – 7 October / 2 – 4 November

Five-day courses: 3 – 7 September / 22 – 26 October

Price

2500€ per person (5 days) / 1750€ per person (3 days)

This price includes daily classes from 9:30 am- 5:00 pm, excursions, all lunches with wine, and supplies. (Please note: dinners and board aren’t included, so please see here for our pick of local places to stay. Of course, we’ll happily bring you to and from Camont for classes!)

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